Canadian vlogger and aspiring filmmaker Peter Chao has been making Internet waves over his YouTube videos, featuring his opinions on topics from Kanye West’s outburst at the MTV VMA’s to hot women, all while donning shades and a thick Chinese accent. He boasts over 20,000 subscribers and a YouTube ban on his record (where they suspended his original account supposedly over racist content). G4’s Attack of the Show even featured Chao in their segment, Who’s Who on YouTube. So what is so appealing about this semi-anonymous Internet celeb?

Honestly, I don’t know. I have a personal vendetta against vloggers (Read about your life? Sure! Watch you ramble in front of a camera? Uh…No thanks.) so the last thing I’d want to watch is some random Chinese Canadian guy talk about things on his mind.

But I will admit: he’s pretty funny. If I was a vlog watcher, I’d subscribe to Peter Chao in an instant. He knows exactly what YouTube viewers want (aside from make-up tutorials): an angry, in-your-face, testosterone dripping voice with a spot on fobby accent. And Peter openly refers to himself as a comedian, too–meaning everything he does and says is done tongue in cheek. For those of you offended by his Engrish, calm down. It’s a joke and somehow enhances (at least to me) his loud messages about hot women, all the haters out there and crazy mudafuckas.

On the other hand, I can’t believe I’m defending a young man who earns laughs by perpetuating Asian stereotypes. Can’t Peter do the same without the accent, or are people only listening because of the way he talks? How far can he go until he realizes that his fans are enjoying his rather offensive accent more than his actual jokes?

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

You’re right: vlogging for the sake of internet famedom is the epitome of skulldouchery.

The accent only exacerbates the problem.

erika888

“For those of you offended by his Engrish, calm down. It’s a joke and somehow enhances (at least to me) his loud messages about hot women, all the haters out there and crazy mudafuckas.”

Yeah, but you do go on to say that you can’t believe you’re defending a dude who perpetuates Asian stereotypes. 😛
I’m confused at the accent. To me, it doesn’t enhance what he says, because I’m too distracted by it.

feedbucket

I can’t tell if there’s some kind of self-aware irony going on or if he’s just trying to be the Chinese Borat.

bill poon

His accent is hilarious but actually more importantly, its done pretty well – not unlike Russell Peters. How many movies have we seen where they hire an Asian American actor to play the part of an immigrant and seriously, there accent is done at a 3rd grade level. Its not just about the broken english but also the tone and well, accent.

Like it or not, fobby accents are funny; as long as they’re done reasonably well (in other words, better than the old “me so solly” kinda stuff.) People mimicking Asian accents CAN be offensive, but not necessarily so. Every Chinese person I know who’s seen Russell Peters’ bit about Chinese thinks he’s brilliant.
The thing with Chao though, is without the fobby accent, he doesn’t seem to be quite funny enough. I get a mild chuckle out of his stuff, but that’s about it. And most of that is down to the accent.

Peter Chao FTW

I personally watch Peter’s vids because they are hilarious. I’d subscribe and continue to watch his comedic ways with or without the accent. Based on what you’ve written in your blog, I think it all comes down to opinion. Loyal fans will stay true to his vids and if you dislike it, it’s okay. Just don’t watch it. And I completely disagree with, “How far can he go until he realizes that his fans are enjoying his rather offensive accent more than his actual jokes?”. Peter doesn’t need to realize anything. This statement is your opinion so I don’t think you should speak for all of us. Without the accent, I still LOVE his videos which therefore makes your blog biased.

woot22

I don’t find Russell Peters funny at all (nor offensive). Anyone relying on race as a crutch in their stand up routine just feels like they’re repeating what Chris Rock did a decade ago, Richard Pryor before that, and I’m sure there are others. And you have to admit that YOU did fob or Indian accents in high school because it was easier to imitate than any other – try doing a Russian accent for laughs.

Chao’s supposed to be trying out stand up… just don’t give me the same old Chinaman joke when I can find something more offensive on stormfront (for real) or /b/ (for lulz), give me something innovative and avant garde. Zach Galifianakis’ routine is pretty good.

Woot22, that’s your personal taste and opinion and you are entitled to it. Personally, I think culture, accents and ethnicity are good sources for humour – its just that not everyone can do it well. I think the reason a lot of people like Russell Peters is that he is doing more than just repeating dumb stereotypes, and that his jokes are made in good spirit, rather than cruel mockery.

When you say YOU, are you referring to me personally? I’ll assume not, but anyway, I do like accents (and am pretty good at them), but I can do Indian or Chinese accents (or Zimbabwean, or Malaysian, etc) because I hang out with heaps of those people. I don’t know enough Russians to be able to nail that accent.

robert559

That’s a Hong Kong accent… not a Chinese accent…… And it’s obviously fake

FOBioPatel

Friend. He is an amazing comedian, and the accent is required.

Deep_Thoughts

I don’t think that’s the proper use of “biased”

I disagree with the whole “if you disagree, just don’t watch it” argument. The reason I personally have an opinion on it is because it effects me as an Asian minority regardless of if I view his videos. The reason I dislike his videos is because they perpetuate an old world caricature of Asians. It’s just a modern reboot of Mickey Rooney’s bumbling Japanese guy. I think the fact that it’s played by an Asian disarms people’s outrage because it has the appearance of being self-deprecating. But people need to realize that the laughter isn’t at the cost of an individual, it’s at the cost of an entire race.

To me, it’s an offensive yesteryear approach to characterizing Asians and destroying the progress Asians have made in the mainstream media. Asians are already unfairly painted in a corner for what the mainstream media will allow us to be. That is why there is an overwhelming absence of Asian pop musicians and actors. Continuing this portrayl of Asians will only reinforce and restrict these confining boundaries.

Another point is, I just think this material isn’t very good. Most of the humor is rooted in mispronunciation and the absurdity of slang/cursing coming in the form of a Cantonese accent. Beyond that there isn’t anything clever about it. Actually there isn’t any POINT to this routine, which is most disheartening. Without a point or a message simply makes it a cheap trick to score some superficial laughs while degrading the perception of Asians. In a way, I cringe when I watch it, in the same way I cringe when I saw William Hung audition for American Idol. The fact that he has a convincing accent creates a layer of reality in the character, and it sort of tricks my mind into thinking it’s a real immigrant who is embarassing himself to America.

ssj4152

Ok, first of all, I would like to tell everyone that having accent is not bad as you think. it is only bad if you think it is bad.
You know a lot of black people talk differently than the white people, they have their own accent, but most people say their accent is cool and a lot of the white people actually try to be like them.
what makes the asian (or chinese) accent uncool? It is only uncool when you try to be white.

I also believe that peter chao is a better role model for us asians than kevjumba and nigahiga. Nigahiga is funny, but he’s kinda goofy, and kevjumba acts nerdy, if anything, kevjumba and nigahiga portray more negative stereotype than peter chao. yes, peter chao is stereotypical, but being stereotypical doesn’t necessarily mean that he represents asians in a negative way, there are positive stereotypes too. I personally think that his accent is cool, just like the black accent (no racist).
I also think that peter chao pushed the boundary of asian stereotype, he changed the negative stereotype to positive. a lot of people believed that asian accent is uncool, but peter chao made it cool. he can rap and he also gets the mudabitch. He also created identity for asian people. as you know, a lot of asians afraid to be themselves, they are embarrassed to be asian, however peter chao is not. as you can tell in his videos, he is proud to be chinese, isn’t that something a lot of us should learn?

You know why william hung is not cool? apart from being ugly, he also tried so hard to be american/white, tried so hard to be a singer, american idol (which is something he’s not), but peter chao, on the other hand, accepted himself, his culture, and his identity, that is one reason why “all the bitches go crazy for peter chao”.

gregsie74

This argument only defends Peter Chao as a Youtube personality. personally I love Peter Chaos videos – as a quick fix, when im bored. What Deep Thoughts is saying however is correct, just because one person can make money on youtube and get loads of comments s because of perfecting a mock accent, doesnt make it progressive. There is only so far the Peter Chao joke can go – and that is serving Peter Chao, noone else. Peter Chao makes money from Chinese identity frustration.They want to be accepted in western media but cant do, so they hate themselves, then along comes Peter Chao and agrees with them. Unfortunately the joke remains an injoke just like Borat was an injoke amongst the Jewish community. Peter Chao is just a quick cash-in. In the longterm, there just needs to be more Western Asian filmmakers, actors etc with honed talent who become great because they are great. Also ditch the textbooks and start using your imagination. There’s nothing wrong to be proud of being chinese but first you gotta be proud of being a great person. Being Chinese/Viet/Thai etc etc etc is incidental. Great People become great not because of their racial makeup, but aside from it. Believe in yourself.
@DeepThoughts’Progress’ starts with believing in yourself, then taking action
@ssj4152,well done on finding your niche, but dont lock yourself in. You might look an idiot at 60

ssj4152

I would disagree with you.
I repeat. Peter Chao does not reinforce the negative stereotypes of Asians. Let’s face it, a lot of Asians have accent, at least half of them live in the west do have some accent, but I do feel it’s unfair that almost no asian in the media speaks perfect English.
However, having an accent is not bad as you think. It is a joke only if you think it is embarrassing.
Obama doesn’t really talk like a white American, he does talk like a lot of afrian americans do, does that mean he’s a joke just because he’s accent? I beg differ.
Peter Chao makes money from his chinese identity, but not his chinese identity frustration. If he really hates the fact that he’s chinese, he wouldn’t even mention that he’s chinese nor asian. As you can see in his videos, he is proud of the fact that he eats with chopsticks, drink bubble tea, eats hello kitty chocolate, etc. He does mention a lot of positive things of the chinese culture that the media never mentioned, and lots of positive asian traits and characteristics that the media never presented.
Positive stereotypes can be your advantage, and I don’t really see anything negative on having an accent, if every asian can be proud of their accent, then there would be more white trying to be asian than the other way around, in a good and admiring way.
I do agree with you that you need to be proud of being a great person, and that’s what peter chao is about. he is proud to be peter chao (don’t tell me you can’t see that).
Youtube has nothing to do with the western media, so Peter Chao doesn’t need to do be accepted by the western media to make money or to be famous

Also, Borat is an injoke amongst the Jewish community. But you got to remember, Jews control all of the american media, not the whites. It makes sense if they want to stereotype asians, but I can’t imagine why the jews want to stereotype themselves.

gregsie74

You would disagree with me, cos you are making a living from it. But thats okay, cos i have my opinion too.

Peter Chao is some guy from canada who puts on an Accent and pretends to be Asian.

I agree he does mention a lot of positive things of the chinese culture that the media never mentioned, and lots of positive asian traits and characteristics that the media never presented. These would be positive if he actually spoke like this in real life. But hes basically some guy in canada putting on a fake accent.

‘ Positive stereotypes can be your advantage, and I don’t really see anything negative on having an accent, if every asian can be proud of their accent, then there would be more white trying to be asian than the other way around, in a good and admiring way. ‘

nothing admirable about putting on a fake accent. amusing, yes.

‘ I do agree with you that you need to be proud of being a great person, and that’s what peter chao is about. he is proud to be peter chao (don’t tell me you can’t see that). ‘

hes proud of being a funny youtube act. if he thinks he can take it further than youtube good luck to him. unless your making money out of putting a fake accent, theres nothing to be proud about it.

‘ Youtube has nothing to do with the western media, so Peter Chao doesn’t need to do be accepted by the western media to make money or to be famous’

youtube is american = owned by google. why doesnt peter chao go to china and make videos for chinese version of youtube, and in chinese, not in engrish

‘ Also, Borat is an injoke amongst the Jewish community. But you got to remember, Jews control all of the american media, not the whites. It makes sense if they want to stereotype asians, but I can’t imagine why the jews want to stereotype themselves.’

I never said Jews arent stereotyping themselves, but ssj4152 /peter chao is using stereotype of hk chinese. Anyway, dude, i hope you make lots of money on youtube. cos peter chao love money. time will tell whether you make Chinese proud.

I don’t think he’s trying to perpetuate an Asian stereotype so much as lampoon it, to make fun of both that stereotype and those who subscribe to the idea that all Chinese people are like that. But then, you get into the moral quandary that Dave Chappelle was confronted with, where you’re immensely successful lampooning the racist stereotypes of your own ethnicity, only to discover that in lampooning that stereotype, you also risk further perpetuation of it, even if it was meant ironically. I think if anyone but a Chinese person were doing it, but I personally (being Asian but not Chinese) don’t find his act to be racist, but then, I don’t look at ‘Chinese Guy’ and automatically think all Chinese people act or sound like that. I imagine there is a certain kind of Fresh Off the Boat Asian who might act that way, but I’ve never met one, only heard of their rumoured existence through other online Asian friends who are Chinese. I didn’t even know what bubble tea was until I was told by a white guy who grew up in Chinatown in Toronto and hung out with Chinese, so I’m no expert on Asian-Canadian issues by any means. All I know is that the ‘Chinese Guy’ persona that Peter Chao adopts allows him to say all manner of outrageous things because he’s playing a character, the way Sacha Baron-Cohen plays Ali G., Borat or Brüno.

While I understand your sentiment, isn’t it unfair to pin the entire Chinese (and particularly Chinese immigrant) hopes and dreams on one young man from Vancouver, British Columbia? In his own way, he’s done something largely unfathomable until now, which was to popularize an Asian face on (predominantly North American) YouTube. And he’s garnering not just Asian fans, but non-Asians as well. Sure, he may appear to be a one-trick pony at this stage, but I think this is all relatively new in terms of the snowballing effect and meme-like popularity he’s gaining, so I’d say give him time to hone his material.

I know it’s easy to harangue our own for not being perfect role-models, but I think it’s important to measure success in the small victories that individuals accomplish, and in Peter Chao’s case, he’s created a popular Asian comedic character which crosses ethnic boundaries in terms of fanbase. I would consider that to be a victory as it’s still rare to see an Asian face in North American mass media. Even the oft-coveted trophy of the Caucasian ‘otaku’ male, the elusive and “exotic” (groan if you must, ladies) Asian woman, how many have made it big in North America? I could probably count the number on the fingers of one hand (Tia Carrere, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh… anyone else?) let alone Asian male faces (George Takei… Bruce Lee? A few character actors that I can’t even name off the top of my head). Although YouTube is still far from network television, it’s still something to be able to say, there’s a popular Asian face out there in North America. I’m not Chinese, but I’m still glad to see Peter Chao famous because when I was growing up, Hikaru Sulu or Bruce Lee were pretty much your only options for seeing anyone who even remotely looked like us portrayed in the mass media. Well, there’s Russell Wong who made a big impression on me in the ‘Vanishing Son’ series that I was disappointed his more recent attempt to make inroads into network popularity met with an all but silent death due to poor ratings (‘Black Sash’, I never even got to see it on TV even though it was filmed in Canada).

Would it be preferable that one of the first truly big North American internet sensations of Asian persuasion were a better role-model? Sure, but it still beats not seeing any Asian faces at all.

But, as I stated before, I’m not Chinese, so I won’t presume to dictate what you and your community might feel are in your best interests. I’m only cheering as a Peter Chao fan and as someone of Asian descent who’s glad to see more people even vaguely resembling him being reflected in media, even if it is “only” YouTube. One might argue YouTube has a lot more cachet than network TV these days, and I’d like to think that young Asian kids growing up today are seeing themselves reflected in the mass media that they consume and realize that there is a place for them in the realm of North America entertainment, so that we’re not all forced to only imagine ourselves as doctors or lawyers or engineers, just because that’s all we ever see and that’s what so many of us get pushed into.

I honestly do want to see more Asians of all persuasions be more prominent and famous in North American media, and I think it starts with supporting the successes of our own and showing how Asian entertainers can cross that ethnic divide and bring in viewers and ratings from across all racial and cultural groups to make them financially viable and even attractive to market. Hollywood and the major networks are notoriously conservative when it comes to race, not because they necessarily have socially conservative leanings but because it’s a financial risk to take, but we have to prove to them that it’s a risk worth taking because it can be lucrative just as it was lucrative to bring African-American faces to Hollywood and network television stardom. I think in that respect we should be taking pointers from the African-American community because they had to go through it first and while some of their challenges aren’t exactly the same, I think they’re similar enough that we should be able to adapt their solutions to our problems of visibility (ironic perhaps considering our visible status as minorities).

ssj4152 says: “But you got to remember, Jews control all of the american media, not the whites.”

—

Dude, that’s the sort of paranoid anti-Semitic nonsense that white supremacists like to spew on Stormfront. 😛 Rupert Murdoch is not Jewish. Conrad Black is not Jewish. Richard Branson, not Jewish.

And honestly, even if there were a lot of people of Jewish descent who are prominent in certain fields (eg. medicine, law, finance, etc.), doesn’t necessitate that that field is thus “controlled by the Jews” anymore than saying Japanese-Americans “controlled” the fishing industry in the West Coast of the United States prior to World War II. Sure, because of a strict immigrant work ethic born at least partly in response to the prejudice they faced, they worked their asses off to go above and beyond and give 110% to everything they did, which included one of the things the Japanese (having been raised on an island nation) had a long history of knowing how to do efficiently. Of course, that inspired the kind of jealousy and resentment amongst Americans who blamed it on the fact that the Japanese-Americans were colluding with each other against the “white” American fisherman and trying to drive them out of business. And thus spread the virulent anti-Japanese sentiment which led to the internment of Japanese-Americans. It had little to do with World War II, as it was simply a pretext of (pardon the pun) “nipping in the bud” a nascent immigrant community that was doing well for themselves because they worked hard.

Just as Jews have often had to work harder than native-born people of any nation because they didn’t have a homeland for the longest time and as such, they were considered (at best) guests and visitors in any nation they tried to call home, and at worst were treated as a scourge, as pestilence to be wiped out. And why? Because people got jealous of them because they worked hard (as immigrants tend to do, as it’s their very survival at stake, unlike those who’ve been in a country for generations and have perhaps grown a little complacent due to lack of competition) and thus earned highly coveted positions in whatever they set their minds to.

Quite frankly, I can’t really blame some of the more virulent Zionists like those in the Jewish Defense League for being just a little paranoid about their own survival, considering how many times throughout history, in countless other nations across the world, Jews have been driven out of their adopted lands just because some people with vested interests got a little jealous of Jewish accomplishments. White supremacists blame the Jews themselves, but I don’t. Every immigrant community tends to stick together for mutual security and protection, even if there were no religious beliefs which proscribed it. And if that community happens to do well, obviously it’s an unfair advantage and they need to be wiped out?!

And even now, now that they have a home in Israel, and for all that the Jewish state has on many occasions committed egregious acts in the name of homeland security, well, with the number of countries surrounding them unashamedly swearing death to the Jews and destruction of Israel, I can’t exactly blame them for being overly protective of the only homeland they have. That doesn’t mean I condone or excuse acts by the Israeli military or police when it comes to oppression of Palestinians, but neither do many prominent Jews both Israeli and those who live in other countries. I also don’t think constant threats of suicide bombers helps their paranoia.

The point is, not all Jews are alike or of like mind when it comes to anything. If there are a lot of Jewish entertainers, I think it has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of entertaining Jews. Many of them are comedians in direct response to a lot of their collective suffering: what can you do but joke and laugh, to make life a little easier when history has made them scapegoats on countless occasions and tried to murder them, culminating in the Holocaust? And even now, there are people trying to claim the Holocaust never happened (despite incontrovertible evidence left by the Nazis themselves), or that it’s exaggerated (6 million Jews murdered is a conservative estimate, rounded down, a figure determined by non-Jewish historians, I might add), and basically trying to once again blame the Jews for everything.

Are there certain aspects of Judaism which does see their own people as the Chosen? Sure, but look at just about any country’s nationalist beliefs, or an ethnic group’s ethnic beliefs, or a religious group’s religious beliefs,, and you see early tenets suggesting that that group were in some way special. I am not surprised when groups of individuals from a similar background band together for a common purpose, as tribalism is a very ancient way of protecting the tribe, the herd from outsiders.

Indeed, is this website nothing if not exactly that: where Asians in North America band together for mutual support and discussion, due in no small part to the fact that we have all, at some form or to some degree, experienced the kind of discrimination or oppression simply on the basis of being Asian?

In the same way, the Jews have faced similar struggles and were forced to survive by sticking together, because for no matter how many of them tried to assimilate, to become Gentiles, to no longer stick to Jewish customs or beliefs, they all got brutally hunted down and murdered in genocidal pogroms just for being something they could not help being by nature of their ancestry: Jewish. And the saddest part is, in terms of physical features, a lot of Jews could easily be mistaken for Caucasian because in fact they are by nature of intermarriage. I’m sure there are Asian Jews out there, just as there are black Jews, etc. I believe I have an Asian friend celebrating seder right now because he’s married to a Jewish girl. And they don’t all have some awesome connection to mass media just because there are some prominent Jews in Hollywood. No one mentions all the prominent non-Jews who actually owned Hollywood, and the many struggles that Jews had in trying to get into Gentile-only golf and community clubs in Hollywood. There are also a lot of Jews who had to change their names to something that sounded “less Jewish, more American” just to try and fit in. Imagine being forced to give up your heritage due to discrimination. The kinds of early civil rights victories were achieved in large part due to support from a sympathetic Jewish community who saw the struggle of African Americans and other ethnic groups in a predominantly racist America as being the same struggle they had to go through to become even somewhat accepted in America.

Really, if Jews really controlled the media, do you think anti-Semitism would even exist?

/rant off

NTF2

That was a very well written and thought out response. I commend you for your insights, as well as for how graciously you delivered them.

asskisser

I like kissing ass. I also dont ask many questions because im scared of shaking the status quo. also theres no such thing as free speech any more

NTF2

Then that’s an appropriate name for you, asskisser.

Anyways since you love trolling please spare a minute and tell us about the blood-sucking vampire squid that is the jewish elite. Oh wait, never mind – I just realized “they” are probably scanning this blog for hate speech – I don’t want to lose my job. =O

kr_metal

Hong Kong and Chinese accent is different thank you for pointing that out. And plus, Hong Kong chinese has these weird but awesome Chinglish kinda words like: “see-doh-beh-lay”.

kr_metal

he doesn’t pretend to be asian, he IS ASIAN. Otherwise why would he have a chinese mom and speak fluent chinese? and yes I am Chinese.

everythingpolice

His accent is annoying. So is his swearing. His opinions are neither insightful nor original. I don’t think he’s making any real points. But then again, most blogs and vlogs don’t. It’s all entertainment directed at people who find extreme social rebellions funny (excessive swearing, excessive accent, excessive stereotypes, excessive racism, excessive sexism, excessive all-isms). At least when Russell Peters make jokes, they can sometimes be identifiable by his audience, but when Peter Chao perpetuates Asian stereotypes, they are usually trite and played out.

as a chinese person myself i love peter chao because he has a sense of humor and has the guts to put it on youtube. im a super big fan of his and even saw him live on stand up comedy in san francisco. if anything we all need to laugh more and relax about his videos. it not lik he put up a video about killing people or something crazy along those lines.

iko: STFU mikey STORMloq, the same garbage that is found in STOMRfront. Aren't you yourself doing the same "...making subjective statements about your own ethnicity, just... – What Do White Supremacists Think of Asians?